1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless devices connected to the Internet, and particularly to conversion of content among a variety of wireless devices connected via the Internet to a wide variety of content providers.
2. Description of the Related Art
As wireless communication devices become more common and become adapted for data communication as well as voice communication, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) has been specified for data applications by leading telecom and software vendors. A goal of the WAP specification has been to create an open standard that will enable creation of value-added services that can be used with wireless terminals and with server products from various vendors.
The WAP specification defines a set of content formats that are used in creation of the wireless services. In principle, WAP enables content conversion from existing Internet content formats to WAP-defined content formats. Also, since WAP is intended to be an open specification, in principle it ensures that content written according to its specifications will be usable on various terminal types from various manufacturers.
However, it has been found that in practice it is very difficult to ensure usability of services when content is converted among various formats and as various terminals implement browser characteristics in different ways. Thus, difficulties arise from differences among the capabilities of various languages used in content creation, and differences among various types of mobile terminals (e.g., different screen sizes and layouts, input methods, processing capabilities, etc.). Furthermore, a user might prefer individual or idiosyncratic variations in content format.
There is thus a need to adjust conversion of content according to a user's terminal type and according to the user's individual preferences.